Thursday, August 09, 2012

Confessions of a Kitchen Table Writer

By PHS Editor and Harlequin SuperRomance author Jeannie Watt

I'm a kitchen table writer. There is an area in my home that I could make into
an office—a nice quiet room, with a door I could shut and a desk I could write
at—but I prefer to write at my kitchen table, thus my monthly PHS column,
Confessions of a Kitchen Table Writer.

The August Confession:

Real life is about to start again and I’m not
ready.

By real life I mean that I will soon be back in the
classroom. The semi-lazy days of summer, during which I can write all day if I
so choose, are almost over and I will miss them.

This may not be common knowledge, but it’s very difficult,
if not downright impossible, to write romance in a junior high classroom. I
know because I’ve spent my lunch breaks trying to put words on paper and there
is just something about an 8th grade classroom that is not amenable
to romance. I can write blogs, create blurbs and fill in art fact sheets for my
covers, but I cannot make my hero and heroine interact in a believable
way. I just feel too self conscious, I
guess.

The odd thing is that, in spite of not being able to use my
lunch breaks and having a whole lot less time to myself, I am almost always more productive during the
school year. My writing time is limited
and precious and I have to make each minute count if I’m going to make
deadline. During the summer, days give the illusion of lasting forever. I don’t have to write in the morning if I don’t
feel like it; I can write at night. Or tomorrow. And if tomorrow doesn’t work out, then there’s
always the next day…

As soon as school starts, I'll write for an hour every morning before getting ready for work. I’ll write while my husband drives us to town
(a good 35 minutes) and I’ll write for maybe an hour in the evenings if my
brain is not fried from sparring with adolescents. I’ll also put in six hours
every weekend and, by sticking to that schedule, probably write at least two books, maybe three,
over the next nine months. Then summer will come and the days will stretch out
to seeming infinity and I’ll get maybe half a book done.

So, upon reflection, maybe it’s a very good thing that real
life is about to begin.

Harlequin Superromance author Jeannie Watt lives in rural
Nevada and writes fast-paced, character driven stories set in the western
United States. To find out more about
Jeannie and her books, please visit her website. Her next book, Crossing Nevada, is a December 2012 release.

4 comments:

Jeannie, I'm so relieved to read this. I teach 4th grade and I have the same sort of summers. I've been kicking myself. I started out getting 23,000 words in the first half of July and I've accomplished little since then.At least it's nice to know I'm not alone.